The Six Pack of Running Winos

Here we are at Demae's wedding in July of 2006 (can't believe it's been that long). Little did I know that the running bug would somehow catch on, and this year, we'd be planning on running the Santa Rosa Half Marathon -- in a matter of months.

Out of the girls pictured to the left - it's me (note the horrible tan line), Demae (bride), Rachel (next to her), Tam (scrunched 2nd from the right), and Heidi. There's one more runner, Harmony, whom I haven't met yet - which will make up the six pack. The only "real" runner of the bunch, Heidi, will probably do the full marathon, while the rest of us will conquer the half marathon -- a whopping 13.1 miles -- in a beautiful wine country setting. I hope I can make it without taking any detours into my favorite wineries for a mid-run refreshment.

So, the training has officially begun. Rachel has put together our training schedules and while they seem reasonable, I found out today that four miles seems substantially longer than three, and it's only going to get longer from here. You'd think the one extra mile would be easy peasy but no such luck. Of course, I picked the hottest part of the day to take my run and thought I might die from heat stroke on the way up the back trail to the house with the "finish line" in sight. Would be mortifying if my neighbor had to come over on his ATV to hoist me back up from a collapsed state. He already rode over once to save me from a chipmunk that got into the house -- and the sofa. But that's another story altogether.

My goal now is to get into half marathon running shape while somehow not giving up wine in order to do so. I need something to live for during this "training" period.